Eternal Tears of Sorrow is one of those longer running melodic death metal bands that has been rustling around the peripherals of metal for quite some time. No doubt you've heard of them and perhaps even lingered for a few moments over one of their CDs at the store before moving onto some other, slightly more intriguing band. On the surface, it would seem Eternal Tears of Sorrow might justify a listen or two along the way, but the reality is their existence has been nothing but a series of competently performed records that contain a couple decent songs surrounded by utterly generic material. This is probably why they both keep getting opportunities to make albums and fail to put an audience in adoring rapture of their output.

Children of the Dark Water finds the band moving a bit further away from a more melodic death metal sound (think the classic late 90s sound that every new band seemed to strive for) towards a more gothic tinged sound. No, they do not sound like fellow countrymen H.I.M., but with keyboards-a-plenty and a general sense of faux brooding, they're not going for the audience that favors Impaled Nazarene either. The band shows some chops, although often it gets a little bit showy. "Tears of Autumn Rain" has some keyboards that suggest the band would like to go over the top with symphonic excess, but instead come across as a timid Arcturus, minus the danger. And let's just say Arcturus really wasn't all that dangerous in the first place. Sometimes they hint they'd be happy being a Children of Bodom understudy band. "Summon the Wild" actually is fairly enjoyable, thus fulfilling the band's tendency to write at least one good song per album, but on the whole Children of the Dark Waters is an exercise in a band meeting the obligations to utilize all the typical elements that go along with gruff, semi melodic keyboard friendly dark metal.

Despite longevity (though the band did go on an extended hiatus for a number of years), Eternal Tears of Sorrow still remains one of those bands whose name you know but discography is still quite the opposite of mandatory. I've listened to all their full lengths and sadly must inform music listeners worldwide that this band is yet another faceless entry who you can safely bypass without getting the feeling you're missing something important.